Partitioning Operators: Skip & SkipWhile

The partitioning operators split the sequence (collection) into two parts and return one of the parts.

Method	Description
Skip	Skips elements up to a specified position starting from the first element in a sequence.
SkipWhile	Skips elements based on a condition until an element does not satisfy the condition. If the first element itself doesn't satisfy the condition, it then skips 0 elements and returns all the elements in the sequence.
Take	Takes elements up to a specified position starting from the first element in a sequence.
TakeWhile	Returns elements from the first element until an element does not satisfy the condition. If the first element itself doesn't satisfy the condition then returns an empty collection.

Skip

The Skip() method skips the specified number of element starting from first element and returns rest of the elements.

Example: Skip() - C#

IList<string> strList = new List<string>(){ "One", "Two", "Three", "Four", "Five" };

var newList = strList.Skip(2);

foreach(var str in newList)
    Console.WriteLine(str);

Try it

Output:

Three Four Five

Skip Operator in Query Syntax

The Skip & SkipWhile operator is Not Supported in C# query syntax. However, you can use Skip/SkipWhile method on a query variable or wrap whole query into brackets and then call Skip/SkipWhile.

The following example demonstrates skip operator in query syntax - VB.NET

Example: Skip operator in VB.Net

Dim skipResult = From s In studentList
                 Skip 3
                 Select s

Try it

SkipWhile

As the name suggests, the SkipWhile() extension method in LINQ skip elements in the collection till the specified condition is true. It returns a new collection that includes all the remaining elements once the specified condition becomes false for any element.

The SkipWhile() method has two overload methods. One method accepts the predicate of Func<TSource, bool> type and other overload method accepts the predicate Func<TSource, int, bool> type that pass the index of an element.

In the following example, SkipWhile() method skips all elements till it finds a string whose length is equal or more than 4 characters.

Example: SkipWhile in C#

IList<string> strList = new List<string>() { 
                                            "One", 
                                            "Two", 
                                            "Three", 
                                            "Four", 
                                            "Five", 
                                            "Six"  };

var resultList = strList.SkipWhile(s =&gt; s.Length &lt; 4);

foreach(string str in resultList)
        Console.WriteLine(str);

Try it

Output:

Three Four Five Six

In the above example, SkipWhile() skips first two elements because their length is less than 3 and finds third element whose length is equal or more than 4. Once it finds any element whose length is equal or more than 4 characters then it will not skip any other elements even if they are less than 4 characters.

Now, consider the following example where SkipWhile() does not skip any elements because the specified condition is false for the first element.

Example: SkipWhile in C#

IList<string> strList = new List<string>() { 
                                            "Three", 
                                            "One", 
                                            "Two", 
                                            "Four", 
                                            "Five", 
                                            "Six"  };

var resultList = strList.SkipWhile(s =&gt; s.Length &lt; 4);

foreach(string str in resultList)
        Console.WriteLine(str);

Try it

Output:

Three One Two Four Five Six

The second overload of SkipWhile() passes an index of each elements. Consider the following example.

Example: SkipWhile with index in C#

IList<string> strList = new List<string>() { 
                                            "One", 
                                            "Two", 
                                            "Three", 
                                            "Four", 
                                            "Five", 
                                            "Six"  };

var result = strList.SkipWhile((s, i) => s.Length &gt; i);

foreach(string str in result)
    Console.WriteLine(str);

Try it

Output:

Five Six

In the above example, the lambda expression includes element and index of an elements as a parameter. It skips all the elements till the length of a string element is greater than it's index.

SkipWhile operator in Query Syntax

The Skip & SkipWhile operator is NOT Supported in C# query syntax. However, you can use Skip/SkipWhile method on a query variable or wrap whole query into brackets and then call Skip/SkipWhile.

The following example demonstrates skip operator in query syntax - VB.NET

Example: SkipWhile method in VB.Net

Dim skipResult = From s In studentList
        Dim strList = New List(Of String) From {
                                        "One", 
                                        "Two", 
                                        "Three", 
                                        "Four", 
                                        "Five", 
                                        "Six"  }

Dim skipWhileResult = From s In studentList
                      Skip While s.Length &lt; 4
                      Select s

Try it

Output:

Three Four Five Six